The Celestial Order

Without wishing to alienate my lay readership, I feel a gentle reminder is now overdue: mountain bikes, town bikes, fixies and mixties, revolve around the god of road racing. Commuting with mudguards, playing bike polo, mountain biking, cycling with family, etcetera etcetera, are done ultimately so that one might have good legs for the weekend. In heaven, other bike types sit at the feet of a road bike. If Byzantine artists were called on to decorate bike stores, mosaics would be reserved for ceilings and the depiction road bikes; other bike types would be depicted only in frescoes, and then only on walls.

And as graven idols go, this new /retro Colnago, with 11 speed Campagnolo Record components, that I saw on the shop floor at Marek’s bike shop today, is as likely to shed real tears of blood as any mosaic of Christ.

Keep clicking for large files into which you can zoom in on those details!

Returning to my stern point of departure above, I will add that nothing of worth exists in terrestrial realms which is not but a pale shadow of bikes such as the one pictured above. As much as I admire the city-cycle-chic blogs, bikes of that niche cannot hold a candle to the lug-work and relentless finesse permeating this piece of equipment, that is both stylish and fast. Why, I ask, did Giorgio Armani put his name to a Taiwanese made Hybrid Bianchi, rather than matching an old-school Colnago with a pair of plain black Santini Nicks, and, let’s say, my new Sidi Ergo2 Carbon Lite shoes! Now there would be a fashion statement Mr. Armani. Finally, as a member of the lycra-robed priesthood, I wish to tell those of you riding up and down the aisles in your plain clothes, that you are welcome to come into the nave. Post Vatican 2, we are all equals.